TRUE Venture Builder at CTU transforms technological ideas into functional products and new companies. It connects technical talent with business, collaborates with students and researchers, and supports market validation, first customers, and the creation of prototypes.
“TRUE Venture Builder has a different dimension than the previously known accelerators and incubators. It does not wait for finished products that can be commercialized, but actively seeks out promising teams and researchers. It then helps them develop their product so that it can succeed in the market,” explains Jakub Nešetřil.
“The university has three major roles. Education, science and research, and last but not least, a concrete contribution to the development of society. The last point can be developed in cooperation with industry and also by creating startups with a real social and business impact. This cannot be achieved without functional support, an important part of which are investors willing to join projects right at their beginning,” emphasizes CTU Rector Michal Pěchouček.
The first visible outcome of active support for entrepreneurship at CTU is the three-month Get Spin-off / Start-up Ready! program for local students and scientific groups ready to develop the commercial potential of their technologies. Sixteen candidates from among students and research teams across CTU faculties advanced to the first round. Topics such as cybersecurity, airport algorithms, automatic identification of surgical instruments, or biomedicine resonated. Thanks to the aforementioned program, students from the University of Economics in Prague also participated in some projects. According to Jakub Neštěril, participants in this initiative learn to view their plans in light of the needs of real customers through cooperation with entrepreneurs, investors, and practitioners.
Eight of the best projects advanced to the final CTU Pitch Night, which took place in cooperation with Czech Founders and the Czech Business Angel Association. Of these, the investor jury awarded Muris Sladić from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering the most. In his Decor project, he focuses on advanced protection of corporate networks.
Second place went to Slávek Zbirovský from the Faculty of Civil Engineering with the project Constriq. Thanks to it, it is possible to digitize point clouds in pre-demolition audits, thereby significantly speeding up the entire process. Constriq is the first spin-off that was created at CTU this year.
Third place and the audience award went to Júlia Bodnárová from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who is developing a smart patch format. This material can monitor the postoperative development of a wound under a bandage and send key information to a mobile phone. This can, for example, optimize the postoperative load and prevent complications or repeat surgery.